Buddy practicing his dinosaur for Halloween!!

Buddy has the best sounds these days!! All kinds of animals, as I have mentioned. The latest is choo choo train! Uncle Dan will be so proud when he visits at Thanksgiving.

We ventured apple picking last weekend. When we arrived, the line for the hay ride to the orchard was eternal. And then we learned that you had to first wait in line to get a hay ride ticket and afterwards, there was another very long line to buy the apples. Sheesh. Needless to say, with our active 15 mth old, we gave up on the apple picking and diverted to pumpkin picking, donuts, and apple cider. Mmm.

The thing is that our life has made that transition we have been waiting for since his first classmate started walking (ahem – 6 mths ago): when he just wants to run around and explore everything he can get into. He also enjoys making friends, saying “hi” and “bye” to everyone…and everything…even his stuffed doggie, Spot, and binkie. Eric tries to explain the concept of not greeting inanimate objects.

Buddy’s really amazing at his animal sounds these days. He has lion roar, bear growl, cow moo, duck quack, dog woof, and even horse neigh. He has elephant too but I don’t know how to spell the elephant sound.

The tricky thing is that he still uses mama and dada interchangeably. Isn’t that strange?? He acknowledges the difference between a duck and dog but not between me and E?!? So odd. I’m crediting strong team parenting.

Here are some pics of Buddy and the pumpkin patch. Photo creds to beautiful Aunt Katie, who we seem to never get pictures of!

Last weekend, he started walking more consistently but still wobbly.

By this weekend, he has it mastered enough to use his lawn mower. He has been waiting months to be stable enough to walk without putting weight on the mower and toppling it over. Now, it’s his favorite thing. So proud!

I know, I know. It’s been a month since I posted!! Where does the time go? Well, I know where the time goes: to this bundle of happiness:

Will post more later, but here is Buddy playing with his little cars.